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32
TEXT 6
THE REASON FOR THE HUDRED YEAR WAR
Flanders had grown to be the industrial center of northern Europe and had
become extremely wealthy through its cloth manufacture. It could not produce
enough wool to satisfy its market and imported fine fleece from England. England
depended upon this trade for its foreign exchange. During the 1200’s, the upper class
English had adopted Norman fashions and switched from beer to wine, (note that
beer and wine were very important elements in the medieval diet). Both contain
vitamin and yeast complexes that the medieval diet, especially during the winter, did
not provide. Besides, the preservation of food was a difficult matter in that era, and
the alcohol in beer and wine represented a large number of calories stored in an
inexpensive and effective fashion. People did get drunk during the Middle Ages, but
most could not afford to do so. Beer and wine were valued as food and were priced
accordingly.
The problem was that England could not grow grapes to produce the wine that
many of the English now favored and had to import it. A triangular trade arose in
which English fleece was exchanged for Flemish cloth, which was then taken to
southern France and exchanged for wine, which was then shipped into England and
Ireland, primarily through the ports of Dublin, Bristol, and London.
But the counts of Flanders had been vassals of the king of France, and the French
tried to regain control its wealth. The English could not permit this, since it would
mean that the French monarch would control their main of foreign exchange. A civil
war soon broke out in Flanders, with the English supporting the manufacturing
middle class and the French supporting the land-owning nobility.
The Struggle for Control France
The English king controlled much of France, particularly in the fertile South.
These lands had come under control of the English when Eleanor of Aquitaine,
heiress to the region, had married Henry II of England in the mid-12
th
century. There
was constant bickering along the French-English frontier, and the French kings
always had to fear an English invasion from the South. Between Flanders in the
North and the English in the South, they were caught in a “nutcracker”.
The “ Auld Alliance”
The French responded by creating their own “nutcracker». They allied with the
Scots in an arrangement that persisted well into the 18
th
century. Thus the English
faced the French from the south and the Scots from the north. The Battle for the
channel and North Sea, the French nutcracker would only work in the French could
invade England across the English Channel.(The French call it ‘La Manche’, ‘The
Sleeve’.) Besides, England could support their Flemish allies only if they could send
aid across the North Sea, and, moreover, English trade was dependent upon the free
flow of naval traffic through the Channel. Consequently, the French continually tried
to gain the upper hand at sea, and the English constantly resisted them. Both sides
commissioned what would have been pirates if they had not been operating with
royal permission to prey upon each other’s shipping, and there were frequent naval
clashes in those constricted waters.
32
TEXT 6
THE REASON FOR THE HUDRED YEAR WAR
Flanders had grown to be the industrial center of northern Europe and had
become extremely wealthy through its cloth manufacture. It could not produce
enough wool to satisfy its market and imported fine fleece from England. England
depended upon this trade for its foreign exchange. During the 1200’s, the upper class
English had adopted Norman fashions and switched from beer to wine, (note that
beer and wine were very important elements in the medieval diet). Both contain
vitamin and yeast complexes that the medieval diet, especially during the winter, did
not provide. Besides, the preservation of food was a difficult matter in that era, and
the alcohol in beer and wine represented a large number of calories stored in an
inexpensive and effective fashion. People did get drunk during the Middle Ages, but
most could not afford to do so. Beer and wine were valued as food and were priced
accordingly.
The problem was that England could not grow grapes to produce the wine that
many of the English now favored and had to import it. A triangular trade arose in
which English fleece was exchanged for Flemish cloth, which was then taken to
southern France and exchanged for wine, which was then shipped into England and
Ireland, primarily through the ports of Dublin, Bristol, and London.
But the counts of Flanders had been vassals of the king of France, and the French
tried to regain control its wealth. The English could not permit this, since it would
mean that the French monarch would control their main of foreign exchange. A civil
war soon broke out in Flanders, with the English supporting the manufacturing
middle class and the French supporting the land-owning nobility.
The Struggle for Control France
The English king controlled much of France, particularly in the fertile South.
These lands had come under control of the English when Eleanor of Aquitaine,
heiress to the region, had married Henry II of England in the mid-12 th century. There
was constant bickering along the French-English frontier, and the French kings
always had to fear an English invasion from the South. Between Flanders in the
North and the English in the South, they were caught in a “nutcracker”.
The “Auld Alliance”
The French responded by creating their own “nutcracker». They allied with the
Scots in an arrangement that persisted well into the 18th century. Thus the English
faced the French from the south and the Scots from the north. The Battle for the
channel and North Sea, the French nutcracker would only work in the French could
invade England across the English Channel.(The French call it ‘La Manche’, ‘The
Sleeve’.) Besides, England could support their Flemish allies only if they could send
aid across the North Sea, and, moreover, English trade was dependent upon the free
flow of naval traffic through the Channel. Consequently, the French continually tried
to gain the upper hand at sea, and the English constantly resisted them. Both sides
commissioned what would have been pirates if they had not been operating with
royal permission to prey upon each other’s shipping, and there were frequent naval
clashes in those constricted waters.
